DIY Mid-Century Atomic Christmas Tree Topper

Posted on December 10, 2015 by jewelsathome

As you know, this Christmas, I’m decorating with a retro mid-century theme. Our tree is trimmed with globe ornaments in red, turquoise, and pink, including these scrapbook paper and washi tape globe ornaments.

I was looking for the perfect tree topper and saw this fabulous atomic topper from Over the Top Finials on Etsy. They have lots of fun products!!

Since I had all the supplies in the house already, I thought I’d try a DIY version, and I’m pretty excited with how it turned out!

Here’s what I rounded up to make the tree topper:

11 bamboo skewers – paint with silver spray paint
Medium styrofoam ball – paint with silver craft paint
Toilet paper roll
Green felt to cover roll
Assorted small balls and beads. I used some vase filler (which also came in handy when making my ornament wreath; I might have some trouble filling a vase in the future…)

Here’s how to put it together

Paint the skewers and styrofoam ball and let dry
Cut the toilet paper roll lengthwise and tape it into a narrower and tapered roll. Push the narrower end into the styrofoam ball. Cover it with green felt to blend into the tree.
Cut the skewers into varying lengths, cutting on an angle to make sharp ends.
Stick the small balls and beads into the skewers.
Stick the skewers into the center ball, spacing them out in all directions and with varying lengths.

Ta-da!

And here’s how the tree has come together, including the retro Christmas Ornament tree skirt!

I think our Christmas tree looks far-out and groovy with its new topper!

“Jewels”

Vintage Photo Garland

Posted on November 22, 2015 by jewelsathome

As you know, this year’s Christmas has a vintage theme, and I thought it would be great fun to share some old Christmas pictures with this simple and pretty photo garland.

To start, I collected old pictures, including some of from my childhood and from my parents before I was born! Once I got into the project, I added some more recent pictures of our kids. I edited all of the pictures using an iPhone app called Instants, which makes them look like vintage Polaroids.

I used ric rac ribbon from my mom’s stash to make the garland, so this is authentic vintage! I hung the photos from the ric rac using clothes pins decorated with scrapbook paper in this year’s colors of pink, turquoise, and red.

This was an easy project, and it’s simple enough that I’m going to leave it up, even though I won’t be decorating the rest of the house until after Thanksgiving.

Tip for Quick DIY Greeting Cards!

Posted on September 14, 2015 by jewelsathome

So, by now it is no secret that I love beautiful papers and prints. While I am busy discarding and tidying my house a la Marie Kondo’s book,The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I have held on to almost all my paper, as it does truly spark joy! That being said, all this beautiful paper doesn’t belong stored in a craft room, so I am always looking for ways to use and share it. I made this paper art to decorate my craft studio, and I have a big project cooking up for the holidays.

I also love making cards. While these can get elaborate, with multiple papers and shapes, rubber stamps and ribbons, today I want to share a quick way to make unique cards. All you need for this project is two sheets of coordinating paper, and you will end up with four beautiful one-of-a-kind cards.

Here’s how:

Start with two sheets of 12″x12″ scrapbook paper in coordinating colors and patterns
Cut 2″ off both sheets of paper, to create 10’x 12″ sheets
Cut the sheets in half in the perpendicular direction, to create four 6″x10″ sheets
Fold the sheets in half to make cards that are 5″x6″, which fit easily in envelopes for 5″x7″cards (for some reason, I have a ton of these collected over the years!)
Finally, cut the 2″ strips in half lengthwise and glue them on the cards of the opposite paper, to create a simple and pretty design.
If you are making more sets of cards, you can switch the 2″ strips around multiple ways, to create even more different patterns!

One of the things I love about this project is that there are no scraps leftover – just a set of cards ready to brighten a friend’s day!

“Jewels”

DIY Wedding & Anniversary Art

Posted on June 27, 2015 by jewelsathome

It’s wedding season, which also means it is anniversary season!

A long-time friend of ours just tied the knot, and I wanted to make something special to help preserve the memories for the happy couple. It’s a perfect time to create something to celebrate Steve and my anniversary, too!

I used pictures from our friends’ wedding announcement to create this simple piece of paper art (I LOVE paper!!). This year is the big 2-0 for me and Steve! Back in the olden days, when we got married, there were no fancy photo cards, but I combined some of my favorite pictures with more fun scrapbooking paper to create this piece of art for our room.

Another fun project I made using wedding invitations were these luggage tags. Nicola and her husband had stunning custom cards incorporating images of the Golden Gate Bridge and a San Francisco cable car. I repurposed some of them into these luggage tags, which are getting a lot of mileage!

You could apply this idea to other cards, too. One year, I took all the Christmas cards we received and created paper ornaments using the pictures to send back to our friends.

For now, I am looking forward to the next wedding invitation that comes to our mailbox, so I can create a memorable piece of art for someone special!

“Jewels”

The Ultimate Craft Studio – Five Keys to the Perfect Creative Retreat

Posted on January 11, 2015 by jewelsathome

Do one thing every day that makes you happy.

From My Favorite Day

I have a lot to be grateful for with my job and family. They keep me busy, teach me, and make me happy every day. It’s equally wonderful, when I can steal a few minutes at the end of the day to do something that is just for me. And that something is usually something creative – sewing, cutting, gluing, or writing about my projects for Jewels at Home.

For those times when I need a little getaway, I love my creative retreat in the top corner of our house. A lot of really fun projects have been cooked up in this space. Did you stumble onto my blog through one of my DIY creations? Well, I’d love to show you where it all happens!

Whether you have a little corner or a roomy studio, here are my five keys for a perfect creative retreat:

Storage
Work surfaces
Lighting
Beautiful colors and patterns
Artistic inspiration

1. Storage

So, I’m lucky enough to have this room to myself for the moment, until the little boys decide they don’t want to share a room anymore. For many years, we had our guest room in my studio, and that worked quite well also. We used a twin-sized daybed that didn’t take up much space, and there was a pop-up trundle that could be used to create a king-sized bed, when we hosted a couple.

Whether you have a whole room or just a corner for your projects, efficient storage is a must. If you only get a few minutes in a day to work on your favorite projects, you don’t want to spend the whole time looking for your supplies! Most of my supplies and projects are stored on these Liatorp bookcases from IKEA. I lined the back with a roll of gray sketch paper for a cleaner look.

The Ultimate Craft Studio: Five Keys to the Perfect Creative Retreat | Jewels at Home

These IKEA Liatorp bookcases fit together neatly and hold lots and lots of supplies!

I have lots of small boxes and baskets to hold different materials, and they are all labeled, to make things easy to find. These Nickel Plated Card Holders are a big help!

Want more storage ideas? That’s a wicker laundry hamper in the right corner holding bolts of fabric.

The Ultimate Craft Studio: Five Keys to the Perfect Creative Retreat | Jewels at Home

There’s more storage hidden in the big IKEA Pax closets we built in to the room (more about those in this post).

The closets in this room, and all our bedrooms, are IKEA Pax units framed and built into the wall. There’s tons of efficient storage inside!

2. Work Surfaces

I have two work surfaces in the room – a desk for sewing or working on the computer and a big project table I created using the boys’ old dressers.

The Ultimate Craft Studio: Five Keys to the Perfect Creative Retreat | Jewels at Home

I should actually say I have three work surfaces, since a lot of big projects like quilts are done on the floor. When we moved in, I was looking for a rug for this room, and now I’m glad I don’t have one, since I work on the floor all the time.

3. Lighting

I needed a lot of light in this room to help me work and also take photographs of my projects. The windows on two walls are a great source of natural light.

There is just one ceiling light fixture (you can see how I stenciled the shade in this post).

I added this plug-in Ikea Knappa Pendant Lamp over my big work table, and a little desk lamp also.

4. Beautiful colors and patterns

I live in a house of all boys, and I’m happy to keep our home’s decor pretty neutral. Since this is my room, though, I did allow myself to let go a bit more with the flowers and frills. The theme is shades of turquoise and green, and there are touches of color and pattern everywhere

The old Queen Anne chairs I painted and upholstered have a fun retro floral print.

Queen Anne chair makeover by Jewels at Home

Free Queen Anne chairs found through Craigslist: from worn and boring to fresh and elegant!

These fabric-covered magnet boards contain all the colors of the room.

And the light shade I mentioned fits in with the rest of the room’s colors.

The roman shades, with their green floral print, were sewn by Liz at SFSeamstress. She’s so talented and even managed to rescue a few pieces of this fabric that I had started cutting for another project. Magic!

5. Artistic inspiration

I love so many parts of this space. Since I’m in the southwest corner of our home, I even have great views to inspire me, including sunsets like this one!

The Ultimate Craft Studio: Five Keys to the Perfect Creative Retreat | Jewels at Home

I also like having the magnet boards to keep ideas easily visible. I use one of my clothespin wreaths to keep a list of to-dos.

The bamboo ladder in the corner is a good place to display a quilt-in-progress.

The Ultimate Craft Studio: Five Keys to the Perfect Creative Retreat | Jewels at Home

I have a little inspiration wall in the corner, including paper art projects that I made and a cute printable from Isn’t That Sew.

The Ultimate Craft Studio: Five Keys to the Perfect Creative Retreat | Jewels at Home

In another nook, I get inspiration from my wonderful family. My mom made this quilt for my birthday one year. The cross-stitch is from my sister-in-law, and the paper flowers are gifts collected over the years from my boys!

Ready for a final look around to see how all these elements come together?

I am really, really in love with my workspace! Is there anything else I could ask for? Some more company! For Christmas, my oldest gave me a “coupon” for a day spent doing crafts together, and I am looking forward to that!

I’m also planning to start a “Creativity Circle” with some friends this year. I’m thinking we can have an activity each month – some girls’ nights in, some art shows, some classes. All of us are working professionals, moms, or both, and we could use some time to connect with our creative sides, and each other.

This is my studio, but I love curling up in other parts of the house, too. Steve has an office in the basement, and for him, the quiet spot, sheltered from the hub-bub of the day, is just what he needs to get his work done. If you don’t have the space in your home, or you need to separate home and work, there are lots of options for artists and entrepreneurs to join a shared work space like WeWork. Where do you like to work?

Wishing you a creative moment each day,

“Jewels”

Overlapping Circles Tray in Blue and Silver

Posted on November 12, 2014 by jewelsathome

A while back, my friend Ari got the inspiration to paint decorative trays, and I caught the bug. She finished painting her tray some time ago, and it turned out beautifully with gold spray-painted stripes. I definitely took longer to finish my tray, but at last, it’s done!

The inspiration for my latest project was actually a tray that Ari found after I wrote my earlier post on ideas for decorating trays. This gorgeous Circles Silver Round Mirror made by Beaux Maison and was my inspiration piece!

Circles Silver Round Mirror Tray. This is a beautiful inspiration!

I love the pattern and silver glow, which I thought would be perfect for an old round tray I had lying around. My original tray was from Target, and while I love the shape and the pattern of the bamboo, it had nicks and scratches in the finish, and the color doesn’t work with our current living room.

The tray had a very glossy finish, so I started by sanding it with a coarse (100 grit) sandpaper and using heavy-duty Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer.

I could have painted the tray in matte and glossy silver paint, to come closer to the Beaux Maison version, but I thought that might be a bit dressy for our living room, so I used a base of pale blue paint. The leftover can of Swept Away by Benjamin Moore has worked for several other projects already, like these painted screens.

Making a contact paper stencil:
To get the overlapping circles design, I found a simple graphic by searching the internet for images. This pattern actually came from a picture of a doormat!

I enlarged it and printed several copies to fit the large tray. After joining the pages together, I taped the whole template to a piece of contact paper. I then used a craft knife to cut out the design. This took a long time, but it made a good activity for a quiet evening, or should I say many quiet evenings!

When it was cut out, I used the stencil with some silver craft paint and created the design.

To finish the project, I applied several coats of a clear spray finish.

I’m still trying out ways to style this pretty addition to our living room. What arrangements do you like?

Yay! Very happy to have this one off the project table and into the living room! Just in time for an icy winter holiday theme?

“Jewels”

DIY Decorated Notebooks

Posted on November 23, 2013 by jewelsathome

This project is part of my effort to spruce up my office and get more organized. I don’t know how organized it will make me, but these little notebooks sure are cute! The other project that I did was to cover plain file folders with scrapbook paper, and these look adorable also.

It seems like most workplaces generate a lot of scrap paper. From my first job out of college to my office today, I’ve usually been the one to collect the extra paper for reuse. At my first job, teaching at a small high school, I used the extra paper other teachers left in my cubby to shred for handmade paper, something I’d love to do more of again. These days, scrap paper from the office is the raw material for my three prolific little artists, as well as my own notes.

Even though we’re reusing old paper, it doesn’t have to look sloppy. I decided to make these notebooks to corral all of those loose papers. They’re great, because they can be decorated to create infinite customized looks, and it’s easy to add and remove pages.

Materials:

cardboard – I used old boxes and the heavy cardboard backing from calendars or pads of paper
fabric and Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold
OR scrapbook paper and Clear Contact Paper
0.5 inch binder rings or 1 inch binder rings
paper for pages. Ours are all scrap paper from the office.

Instructions:
Paper-covered notebooks

for each notebook, cut two pieces cardboard to 8.5″x11″
cut paper for the front and back to 8.5″ x 11″. I mixed scrapbook papers to make interesting designs
glue the paper onto the cardboard with a gluestick
Wrap the cover in Clear Contact Paper. As an optional step to make the inside of the cover more finished, I added white contact paper to the inside of the covers.
Punch holes on the left side
Use binder rings to hold the paper in place

Cute DIY covered notebooks. Jewels at Home

Wrap the notebook cover in clear contact paper to protect it.

Make your own customized DIY notebooks | Jewels at Home

As an optional step, I added white contact paper to finish the inside of the covers.

I rounded the edges of some of the covers to make the design more interesting. For these, cut small wedges to fold the contact paper neatly.

Fabric-covered notebooks

for each notebook, cut two pieces cardboard to 8.5″x11″
cut fabric rectangles about 12″x15″ for the front and back covers
Fuse Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold to the back side of the fabric, and then iron on to the cardboard
After cutting the corners, wrap and fuse the fabric to the inside of the covers.
As an optional step to make the inside of the cover more finished, I added coordinating paper to the inside of the covers.
Punch holes on the left side
Use binder rings to hold the paper in place

Make your own fabric-covered DIY notebooks | Jewels at Home

Adding coordinating fabric to the inside of the covers gives a more finished look.

Here are the notebooks I made for myself. I can’t wait to whip one out during a meeting!

Make your own customized DIY notebooks covered in scrapbook paper or fabric. A beautiful way to organize loose papers | Jewels at Home

It’s fun look to make the back and front of your notebook from different papers that work well together. I love this one!

These notebooks have rounded corners for added detail.

And here are the notebooks I made for the boys. They each chose their own covers – Superman for little J, art pencils for my budding artist L, and navy for big boy K. I wasn’t sure if the note books would catch on, but so far, the boys really seem to like keeping all their drawings organized in these! Yay!

The kids each chose the covers for their new notebooks.

L is really into art right now, which is so fun for me. I looped an elastic through the middle ring of his notebook, so he can keep his portfolio together. He has been bringing it to school every day!

Here’s what L is working on in his notebook. I love it!

More of L’s sketches, all neatly contained in his new notebook.

Yay for these little notebooks. They would make great gifts, too!

Some holiday projects coming up next!

“Jewels”

Decorate Ceramic Mugs – Gifts for Dad

Posted on June 2, 2013 by jewelsathome

Steve’s birthday and Father’s day always fall within the same week, and I am sad to confess that he tends to get short-changed with a combined Happy-Father’s-Birthday-Day celebration. Add to the scheduling issues the fact that we are often traveling around that time of year, and sometimes the best I can do is help the kids make some creative cards for dad.

This year, I am planning ahead just a little more, and we have two separate (gasp!) projects to make. Of course, I love doing something handmade, especially from the kids. But I also wanted to make sure that our gifts were practical and I think our projects- mugs and aprons – are perfect!

This morning, the boys and I decorated some coffee cups for Father’s Day – or his birthday – I haven’t decided which is which. This is a fitting gift, because a) Steve’s ability to function as a human being is closely tied to caffeine and b) we keep breaking our cups, so we need more. Not glamorous, but true.

Being an avid fan of Pinterest, I have of course seen the posts about decorating mugs with Sharpies. On closer reading of reviews, however, this might not be as durable as I ideally want. I did, however, find recommendations for these Pebeo Vitrea 160 Glossy Markers. They are meant for glass but also work on ceramics. The colors are very bright, and the markers are easy to use. The one thing I would mention is that these are really paint pens, meaning the paint can splatter, so wear a smock or something you don’t mind getting a few spots on. (Yes, I speak from experience. My cream-colored blouse was an unlucky wardrobe choice, but fortunately the spots are very small.)

We each decorated one of these White Ceramic Mugs and wrote our names and the date on the bottom.

I’ll be baking these to set the color when Steve is at work one day, and I look forward to surprising him with them in a couple of weeks!

“Jewels”

Decoupaged Mirror Frame (Ikea Malma)

Posted on April 14, 2013 by jewelsathome

These wide-frame mirrors from Ikea have so many possibilities! You could hang them as they are, of course, but what fun to decorate them with a tile mosaic, paint, or paper!

In setting a theme for our tween boy’s new room, I found this fun and colorful Heroes and Villains wrapping paper. I’m using it for some DIY pencil tins and also covered some Ikea Malma mirror frames for his wall.

This is an easy project. You’ll need a mirror, wrapping paper, Mod Podge, and a brush. I started by using painter’s tape (okay, I guess you’ll need that, too) to cover up the mirror in the center, so it wouldn’t get glue on it. (pictured below, left). I then spread a layer of Mod Podge over the mirror frame and carefully lay the paper on top, lining it up and smoothing out the wrinkles. (pictured below, right)

Decorating an Ikea Malma mirror frame. Decoupage with wrapping paper. {Jewels at Home}

Cover the mirror with painter’s tape (left). Spread Mod Podge over the frame and lay the wrapping paper on top (right).

To fit the paper around the mirror, I cut an “X” shape and then trimmed the paper with a craft knife (oh yes, you need that, too!). (pictured below, left) To wrap the paper around the edge of the frame, I cut squares out from the corners and then applied more Mod Podge and wrapped the paper around, smoothing out the wrinkles and bubbles. (pictured below, right)

Cut an “X” in the center and trim the paper with a craft knife (left). Cut squares out of the corners and apply the paper around the frame with the Mod Podge (right).

I finished off the mirror with a few coats of Mod Podge to seal the paper and give it a glossy finish. I hung the mirrors with my favorite Command Picture-Hanging Strips.

Here’s how the finished mirror looks:

And below are some pictures of the entire wall. Also featured on this wall are

DIY oversized wall initial
DIY art gallery clip frames, great for quickly rotating art and photos
Vintage Comic Calendar. They have several years of these beautiful calendars with different covers.

This sweet tween’s room is almost ready. His desk is on order, and I look forward to showing you the completed space, soon!

“Jewels”

Felt Christmas Trees

Posted on November 20, 2012 by jewelsathome

Here is the second group of Christmas trees I made for our mantel this year.

I haven’t put up any of the trees yet – I love Christmas, and I’m definitely catching myself singing along to the carols in stores, but I’m trying to enforce a little discipline at home. Besides, we’ve had some warm spells this November, so I might as well finish soaking up fall before celebrating winter!

I was originally inspired to make a Christmas forest by the exquisite handmade Christmas trees by Shauna Mailloux, and for today’s trees, I found inspiration from the charming felt trees made by Rebecca at the Crafted Sparrow.

Just to remind you, here’s a picture of the first decorative Christmas trees I made. They were all quick projects created by winding yarn or trim around the cone.

Make your own decorative Christmas trees. Easy, inexpensive, and unique holiday decor!

For the felt trees, I also used homemade tree bases formed by rolling used cardboard boxes into cones of varying sizes.

As predicted, this second group of trees did take longer to make, but they were still very doable projects and absolutely worth the effort!

Felt triangle trees
These trees were the ones inspired by the felt trees made by Rebecca at the Crafted Sparrow.

I made the first tree using 3 full sheets of felt for a 14.5″ tall cone. I started by cutting two inch strips of felt and then cutting those into triangles (top left picture below). I saved a little felt to hide the cardboard under the first row and a small circle to finish off the top.

Because this tree sat flat on the ground, rather than on a trunk, I wrapped some strips of felt around the bottom 2 inches of the tree, so the cardboard wouldn’t show under the first row of triangles (top right picture below). I then glued triangles, overlapping slightly, in a row around the cone (bottom left picture below). Hot glue worked better than white glue, which just got absorbed into the felt. I worked the same way all the up the tree and capped off the top with a small circle of felt.

A pretty tree, and I love this dark blue-grey color of felt.

DIY felt Christmas tree.

The second felt triangle tree sits up on a glass bottle for a trunk. I’m thinking of filling it with some silver and grey beads. This tree was made the same way, except the first row of triangles hangs off the bottom of the cone (left picture below), since there is a trunk. For some variety, I made a narrower shaped cone for the white tree, and I added also some small pearl beads I had in my craft stash (right picture below). The cone for this tree is 13″ tall and used just over two sheets of felt.

DIY felt and bead Christmas tree with a glass base.

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Felt circle tree

My friend and partner in crafting (crime), Ari, spotted these sweet felt trees from Land of Nod (and let’s be honest, what isn’t sweet at Land of Nod?!). The circles were not so hard to cut out – I used a Sharpie to trace a spool on a sheet of felt (top left picture below) and then pinned it to a second one, to cut out two sheets at once (top right picture below). This little tree used just over two sheets of felt.

Because the tree sat up on a base, I glued the first row of circles hanging just off the bottom of the cone (bottom left picture below). The cone was wider than the others, to change things up, and I decided to put a base on it, which was a large tin can wrapped in brown felt (bottom left picture below).

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Another cutie to add to the forest!

DIY felt circle Christmas tree inspired by Land of Nod.

Here are some more pictures of the new felt trees and some of their old friends:

I am hoping to get around some more trees this season, but we’ll see how things go, with some stockings and teacher gifts still on the to-do list. I’m enjoying getting warmed up for the season!

“Jewels”

I shared this project at:

Centsational Girl’s holiday Link Party